


where form meets function

by fudges



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Pre-Canon, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 18:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21257756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fudges/pseuds/fudges
Summary: Kenji Katagawa Jr finds news on the Echonet that Rhys Strongfork has taken over the Atlas Corporation.





	where form meets function

**Author's Note:**

> Katagawa goes by Kenji in this, because he's 18. I'm also fudging w the ECHOnet, that's just what the internet is called now. If someone wants to correct me, I'll edit the fic. Also, the drug use is oblique, but it's not portrayed as a bad thing.

Kenji Katagawa Jr. first saw Rhys Strongfork when he was 18, and browsing the ECHOnet absentmindedly, for any new information on consumer's reaction to Maliwan Black Label's new taste. 

Wrotaku had written an article about it, and one of the related articles had a bold headline reading NEW ATLAS CEO: COMPANY RISING FROM THE ASHES? The headline itself seemed purple-prosey, but the accompanying picture was of a man, smirking, one side of his mouth pulling up farther than the other. He had nice hair, and sported an ECHO-eye and a cybernetic arm.

He was fascinating.

So was the idea of Atlas coming back. Hyperion had stumbled, hard, when Handsome Jack had died, everyone there flopping around like fish out of water without Daddy to guide them. Jakobs was the only other company that targeted a slightly adjacent market, and there was no real competition from them. Father had relished the lack of a rival for Maliwan, but privately, Kenji thought life was the most interesting when you had someone to crush. 

And Rhys Strongfork? He looked crushable.

Only time would tell how he'd fare in the larger arena. The article didn't give much personal information about him, only that he used to work at Hyperion, and grew up on Eden-5, and had gone to school on Eden-6. They didn't even have an Echonet handle for him, which was extremely disappointing. Kenji experimented with searching his name, scrolling through the results slowly. Behind him, Naoko entered the kitchen, holding a can of soda. When she noticed him in the room, she sauntered over to the back of the couch, and attempted to read his Echo-Tablet. Kenji shifted, trying to block her view with his shoulder.

Naoko leaned over the back of the couch, looking at his Echo-Tablet. “Rhys...Strongfork? Pretty dumb name.”

Katagawa held the tablet to his chest with one hand, attempting to whack her in the face with the other. “Whatever, loser. Not like your opinion matters.” He waited for a second, for the first part to sink in. “You don’t know anything about weapons manufacturing.”

Naoko sniffed, leaning back. “I know enough. Plus, he could be the second coming of Handsome Jack, wouldn’t make his name less stupid.”

Kenji ignored her, slumping into the cushions and holding the ECHO-tablet over his face. “You shouldn’t praise Handsome Jack like that. Father’ll get mad.”

Naoko stared at him for a second, and then smacked the back of his tablet, so it fell out of his hands and landed directly onto his nose. He screeched and Naoko laughed as she walked off. “What Father doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” 

Kenji sat up slowly, pinching his nose so it wouldn’t bleed, scowling at her back.

Fucking Naoko. She was his sibling that was closest in age, and she was also the fucking worst. He missed Junko, his tenth oldest sister. She had an addiction to some drug that made her spacey, but also, easy to talk to. Junko’d just stare at your face, and smile with half-lidded eyes, and nod along to whatever you said. It made her perhaps the most pleasant sounding board of all time. Sometimes, when she was particularly lucid, she’d say something about how his ideas were good, or he was “her favorite little brother”, and then laugh. The joke wasn’t good (Kenji, being, of course, her only little brother), but Junko’s laugh was pleasant enough, and more compliments was never a bad thing.

Naoko never nodded along to anything, and she never gave compliments. It made her insufferable. And she was always fucking around, constantly hanging around the penthouse and saying something about whatever he was doing. 

It'd been better when they were younger. With 13 siblings, all born in such close range to each other, there was always someone to talk to, and someone to talk about. Now, him, Naoko and Masami were the only ones who lived there full time, and Masami was the fucking worst, even more than Naoko. If Naoko was constantly critical, Masami was a killjoy, always ready to point out if something was dangerous or ill-advised or had even the slightest possibility of being fun. He hated her, too.

He looked down at his tablet, now with a slight blood smear where it'd crushed his nose. The results from the search on Rhys Strongfork's name still lit up the screen. Mostly, it was ECHO threads attempting to discover what his ECHOnet handle were, what exactly had led him to be in control of the deed to Atlas, what the hell his credentials even were and one or two about whether he was a twink or a twunk.

Kenji looked at his picture again. 

Honestly, he wasn't sure if this guy qualified for any of them. He wasn't muscular enough to be a twunk, and looked slightly too old to be a twink. Katagawa grabbed the corner of a blanket that was on the couch, and rubbed the blood smudge away. He examined Rhys Strongfork’s face closely.

Hopefully, he’d be able to do something with Atlas before Father killed him.

**Author's Note:**

> I like to hop onto the ole computer box and post things that literally only appeal to me. 18-year-old Katagawa is fun to write, and his interactions with Naoko are even more fun. Also, if we get more knowledge about the Katagawa siblings, this'll probably be edited, because I like to be canon compliant, to an extent. 
> 
> (i made a whole write-up of every Katagawa kid and like one major personality trait of theirs for this hahA)


End file.
